


Drowned

by YanDanTDM



Series: Trinity Hostile Mob Fusion AU [3]
Category: Minecraft (Video Games), Trinity RPF, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Grief, Haha half of this isn’t even about Justin turning into a Drowned, Worry, missing people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26544955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YanDanTDM/pseuds/YanDanTDM
Summary: Justin can’t find his friends.He grieves.And joins them.
Series: Trinity Hostile Mob Fusion AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919665
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Drowned

**Author's Note:**

> This is less dark than the description suggests but please be wary: Justin suffers a LOT in this one and cries as well as drowning, so do be careful!

Think laughed as the early sun shined down and the Drowned he had been leading up above the surface burned. He didn’t quite know why it made him so...happy with himself, maybe it was the fact he was getting better with his skill? But it made him happy.

He went to his communicator and texted the other two, wondering whether they had a successful day like he did.

_ <Thinknoodles> I managed to get rid of so many of them, and I’m willing to do that tomorrow too!! How did you guys do? _

He was used to immediate responses, so then when neither of the duo responded in 5 minutes, he got a bad feeling.

_ <Thinknoodles> ...Guys? _

He blinked a few times and yet no response. Justin knew he was probably overreacting, he always got too nervous whenever he had no idea what was going on, but something about this just felt  _ wrong.  _ Usually it was just Dan being late or not paying attention, but at least James had eyes on everything, right? 

_ <Thinknoodles> You two better not be pranking me. I’m coming back to base! _

The usual bliss of running by a river evaded Justin as the uneasiness set in. Nothing bad had happened, right? Right? Justin was certain it was a prank, but yet…

He made it back to the bases to find no sign of his friends. There weren’t many good hiding spots, they had been sure of that. He looked around, but could not find a single person. 

_ <Thinknoodles _ > _ Guys, this isn’t funny!  _

His pace quickened and his breathing did in turn. He went into his house, looked around, nothing. 

_ <Thinknoodles> Last chance. If you’re pranking me, come out now otherwise I will start intensely searching for you as if you’re dead. I’m perfectly serious.  _

No response. He desperately hoped they were just fooling with him, just playing with his emotions, but it really didn’t feel like it.

He ran into James’s house next. There seemed to be no change from what it normally looked like, his sword was still there and his armour was gone and so was his food, but...he had nothing else. Nothing had changed. 

Justin shook his head and walked out. He was certain now that they were actually in danger, but why hadn’t they sent anything? Justin felt the urge to back read the messages on the chat, so then maybe he could get an idea.

He absentmindedly scrolled up past his messages and walked into Dan’s house just as he saw it. 

A shattered potion on the floor, all dissipated and used on the world already. A mess that Justin’s couldn’t place, with armour stands knocked over and a torn piece of fabric hanging off the bed. 

Justin grabbed it and inspected it. It was a part of James’s jumper, torn off from the bottom. 

Now, Justin wasn’t...the smartest out of the trio. That would be Dan, and by god did he wish he had Dan’s help right now, as nothing seemed to add up. 

“Alright, time to make a timeline…”

The sun lit up Dan’s stacks of paper and Justin took a blank one before writing. 

_ Timeline of last night: _

_ Dan James and I split up at dusk _

_ Dan went over to the woodland mansion _

_ I went over to the coast lines, James stayed behind to get the phantoms _

_??? _

_ James was in Dan’s house, used a potion and I assume had to run  _

_ Neither Dan or James returned  _

Justin folded up the paper and stuffed it into his inventory. Alright, what did that mean? Knowing James, he would have run into the forest, so that’s exactly where Justin decided to go. 

He had a look at the sun. It was nearly at its midpoint, though he thought he had only spent about 5 minutes looking for them. 

Justin reassured himself, he’d be able to find them. At this point it wasn’t a prank, he knew that. But a lingering thought in his head hoped that Dan would just appear and scare him. He usually hated being scared but right now, he preferred the momentary surprise to the never ending feeling of impending doom. He hoped he’d have to scold them for terrifying him that badly, and he hoped that it would all be forgotten.

He doubted it would happen.

Before he left, he went back into his house and searched in his drawer for something, something for momentary comfort. 

A photo of him, James and Dan laughing and a photo of them in the blank space before they began building. It was a selfie Dan had taken on their communicators, and it made Justin want to laugh and cry all at the same time. It was the only photo they had of all three of them, and Justin was nominated to look after it. It was supposed to be a more formal photo but Dan had messed up with the timing and therefore it was just a chaotic selfie. They were Justin’s first true friends...and at the moment, they were missing. And he was going to have to find them.

Filled with a new determination, Justin wandered into the forest, calling their names and pacing around, checking everything suspicious. 

He checked the communicator again. 

Nothing.

Justin ran for a while until he found another sign of James. 

More torn pieces of fabric. Quite a bit of fabric. Justin couldn’t tell, but it appeared James had a struggle here too, so he put this down on his paper.

_ James ran out to the forest (without weapon) and had a struggle? _

He picked up the fabric and tried to place some idea of what happened, but couldn’t find anything. He was never able to identify these things. 

But Dan could.

Justin started running in the other direction as the sun rose up over his head. He was unsure how time was passing so fast when honestly it felt like time was going slower than ever before. But at the same time, he felt like time was running out.

Justin ran into the plains on the other side of the plains and ran for a while, hoping to find the woodland Dan was supposed to be in soon. God, he was so stupid. He had  _ felt  _ like splitting up would be a terrible idea, of course it went so wrong! Justin wanted to try privately DMing Dan, but remembered that they hadn’t privately DMed in a while. So he’d have to type in Dan’s name.

He was about to try but he ended up at the woodland just as he pulled out his communicator.

“Alright, Dan. I’ll find you.”

And so he paced into the woodland. He walked again for some time, hoping to find the mansion that Dan had ran to but began losing hunger, and fast. He was lucky he had some steak on him. Justin found a tree and leaned against it, before recoiling from the odd feeling on his back. A single dent on the side had been poking out. It wasn’t much, sure, but Justin was curious. It was almost certain it was nothing, but Justin was too far on alert. He pulled out his axe and cut it down, and then got his shovel out and dug, expecting nothing, but instead finding a familiar sword buried under the ground. 

It took Justin a second to blink and understand what he had uncovered. Dan’s sword, neatly buried underground, under a tree in such a way that it would have never been found if Justin hadn’t caught the dent out of the corner of his eye.

He carefully picked it up and checked. It had that telltale red button in the middle (Dan was given it by Trayaurus, all scientifically made and advanced), and the usual name that Dan had given it - ‘le stab’. This was Dan’s weapon, for sure.

So then why was it hidden in such a way? 

Justin wrote this down on the paper.

_ Dan’s weapon buried under a tree. _

It was almost as if the sword in Justin’s hand gave him a burst of intelligence, because he could come to a conclusion about Dan and James’s situations.

“...they were hunted down.”

It was the only possible answer, at least to Justin. James left signs of a struggle that went from Dan’s house (why Dan’s?) to the forest. Dan’s weapon neatly buried...someone didn’t want anyone finding it.

Justin was panicking internally. Where could they have gone?! He didn’t see a death message so they must be alive, just kidnapped somewhere.

Just to make sure, he grabbed his communicator and privately messaged Dan.

_ <Search for player: DanTDM> _

_ <Player DanTDM does not exist.> _

That complicated things a bit more. Dan apparently didn’t exist. He tried with James.

_ <Search for player: ThnxCya> _

_ <Player ThnxCya does not exist.> _

Now Justin was confused. The only reason they couldn’t be found would be as if they died, but the thing was they weren’t dead, Justin was sure of that. And he knew they existed, right? He had the photo! He pulled it out, just to make sure he wasn’t going off the deep end. They were still on there, smiling bright as day. 

So where were they?

A high pitched laugh behind Justin sounded and a small smirking vex began to attack him, and he swatted it away using his communicator before putting that away.

“Ugh, evokers are the last thing I need right now.” He said, before running out and away from the woodland, making sure to pick up Dan’s sword as he left. He could have sworn he heard something calling out to him but wasn’t sure what.

Justin ran back out to the base and down the river for a while, stopping at a warm and sandy area by the coast. Justin knew it was time to compile what he knew. 

James and Dan were missing. James had a struggle in Dan’s house and the forest. Dan’s weapon was neatly tucked away under a tree. Neither of their player names can be found. The only other thing Justin had left of them was the photo, which he looked at sadly.

It just confused and scared Justin to no end. The sun was slowly falling from it’s peak behind him, and he felt the hot rays of it beating down onto his back. He scratched his beard and looked at his communicator again. 

No conversation recently other than his calls out for them. He looked at the details.

_ Filter: Death messages censored. _

Oh. Justin slapped his forehead, how could be be so stupid! He remembered censoring them out because he’d get death messages of...the yellow tic tacs he no longer cared about. He changed the filter and checked again. Maybe he was too late. Maybe he’d missed something important because he’d filtered out the death messages.

_ <DanTDM was slain by Vex> _

_ <ThnxCya was slain by Phantom> _

It took Justin a second to process what he was reading.

“No- No! I refuse to believe it!” 

It was before he started looking for them, so the night before. 

“They’re not dead! THEY’RE NOT DEAD!”

But all the evidence added up to it. Someone hunted them down and killed them using mobs. 

Justin started at his communicator for a little longer.

“Stay strong stay strong stay strong stay strong-”

Then Justin’s eye caught a glimpse of the photo where they were all happy.

And he began to release uncontrollable sobs.

Why? Why them? Why two of the best people he had ever met, the people who kept him sane? Why did they have to die? And why not him?

Justin threw his communicator into the water. It wasn’t as if he’d need it anymore and plus it would appear next to him the next morning. He watched it fizzle and sink as streams of water trailed down his cheeks. 

He had promised he’d keep them safe. He’d tasked himself that no matter what he’d do he’d put the other two first.

He broke his promise. He’d failed his task. 

He’d failed them.

Justin didn’t know how long he spent grieving but he knew a lot of time had passed since he came to the coast line. He didn’t notice the sun behind him slowly hitting different parts of his back with it’s rays.

“I’ve gotta continue, I guess, continue what we started…” He mused, but didn’t act on his thoughts, looking at the photo he at some point picked up. He didn’t notice when.

He didn’t notice the splashing noise of the creature below him. 

He didn’t notice them reaching out.

He only noticed when they grabbed his leg and began dragging him in.

“Wh- huh?! AGH!” 

He tried to pull away but the Drowned pulled him under quick and fast, the photo in his right hand quickly being soaked and his left hand reaching out above the waves before being dragged below the depths.

Justin thrashed around, he didn’t want to die here, not now, not when he had friends to avenge-

No matter how hard he tried, he could feel the air he had from above water slowly depleting and his lungs filling up. The salty taste of his surroundings filled his mouth and he tried to spit it out but it wouldn’t leave. He could hear the faint groans of the zombies around him, forcing him to stay underwater. He knew this wasn’t how they were supposed to behave but that wasn’t the problem. His problem was that he was drowning, drowning fast. He struggled and pulled and pushed all he wanted but nothing happened, he was stuck.

Soon enough he started feeling weaker and weaker, his legs giving up against the pull of the mobs around him and Justin knew that he didn’t stand a chance, this was his end. This was the moment the world would fade out. 

They didn’t lie when they said that when you’re about to die your life flashes before your eyes. Justin couldn’t keep the sweet memories for long, but he remembered waking up, remembered setting up his lab, remembered leaving the lab in desperation, remembered meeting Dan and James, remembered all the fun times…

The photo he was holding lazily flew out of his hands and floated up before lodging itself inside a rock. He didn’t care. 

The blue hue of the water became peaceful and kind. Justin felt...calm. He didn’t feel as if he needed to escape. He didn’t have a chance at escape anyways.

Justin closed his eyes and let death take him, the world fading to black. 

~~~

The drowned paced along the floor, the trident held tightly in his hand. He let out a groan by accident, not meaning to but it wasn’t as if he could help it. 

His memories were fuzzy but he didn’t like to dwell on them. He vaguely remembered his name (Justin, was it? Or was it James?) and why he was at the coast (grieving, he thinks).

He remembered dying clear as day and he shook off the feeling. 

An unsuspecting player came down only to be shot down quickly by him. Their items flew out but he didn’t care, all he cared about was vengeance against those he wished he could be.

He wished he could be alive.

Again. 

But no, he was simply part of the screaming horde now.

**Author's Note:**

> SOOOO this ended up being...much less about Justin’s death and more about Thingst. Whoops. Oh well.   
> It’s a lot longer than the other two but I think Justin suffers a lot so :) Yeah anyways thanks for reading this little series, if I ever post more I will add but for now we’re complete! Thank you :)


End file.
